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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24897976">you are any way the wind blows</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/suzukiblu/pseuds/suzukiblu'>suzukiblu</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Avatar: The Last Airbender</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Airbending &amp; Airbenders, Alternate Universe, Female Friendship, Friendship, Gen, Hugs, Male-Female Friendship, Not Canon Compliant - The Legend of Korra, Not Compliant with Avatar Comics, Platonic Relationships, Secrets, airbender!Ty Lee</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 02:13:40</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,822</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24897976</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/suzukiblu/pseuds/suzukiblu</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Air feeds fire, but nobody in the Fire Nation talks about that. Ty Lee heard it somewhere, though. </p>
<p>But that was a long time ago.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Aang &amp; Ty Lee, Azula &amp; Mai &amp; Ty Lee, Azula &amp; Ty Lee (Avatar), Mai &amp; Ty Lee (Avatar), Ty Lee &amp; Zuko (Avatar)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>53</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>1191</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>AtLA <10k fics to read, Best of Avatar: The Last Airbender, My Favorite Atla Fics, Recommended Fics for A_salty_Burr</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>you are any way the wind blows</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/MirandaTam/gifts">MirandaTam</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Written for MirandaTam, who wanted secret airbender Ty Lee. I know very little about both LOK and the comics, so we’re non-compliant for those.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The air is heavy. It’s definitely going to rain, and probably going to storm. Ty Lee doesn’t like rain, but she likes storms. She always has. </p>
<p>She doesn’t tell people that, though. </p>
<p>Ty Lee doesn’t tell people a lot of things. </p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>“What are you looking at?” Mai says, and Ty Lee turns her head to look at her and puts on a bright smile. </p>
<p>“I bet I could get up there!” she chirps, pointing overhead. Mai tips her head back. And <i>back</i>. The palace of Ba Sing Se reaches far into the heavy, gray-clouded sky. </p>
<p>“You’d break your neck,” she says flatly, which for Mai is concern. </p>
<p>“I could do it!” Ty Lee says. “It’s not that hard.” </p>
<p>“Neither is breaking your neck,” Mai says. </p>
<p>“Focus, girls,” Azula says. “We have work to do.” </p>
<p>“Whatever,” Mai says. </p>
<p>“Okaaay,” Ty Lee sighs, and they move on. </p>
<p>Ty Lee keeps thinking about the towers of the palace, though, and wonders if she could get up there before the storm hits. Probably a bad idea, since lightning is a thing and Azula is definitely not going to come with her, but . . . </p>
<p>Well. Ty Lee likes storms. If she’d ever told anyone that, she’d say it was because of the lightning, but that’s not the reason. </p>
<p>The lightning is one thing, but the <i>wind</i> . . . </p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>Ty Lee can jump higher than anyone else at school, at the circus, in the army, that she knows, and she never gets hurt when she falls. It’s easy. She had to try really hard to learn everything else she can do, especially chi-blocking, but jumping? Jumping was nothing, and she’s only gotten better at it with time. </p>
<p>Sometimes she thinks she might be getting too <i>much</i> better, but it’s so hard not to. </p>
<p>She thinks about the first time she saw the Avatar bend. </p>
<p>No reason. Just she thinks about it. </p>
<p>Air feeds fire, but nobody in the Fire Nation talks about that. Ty Lee heard it somewhere, though. </p>
<p>But that was a long time ago. </p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>“I could definitely get up there,” Ty Lee says, leaning out the window of their palace rooms. It’s started to rain. The wind’s picking up. </p>
<p>“So can the Dai Li,” Azula says. Mai doesn’t even look up from filing her nails. </p>
<p>“Yeah,” Ty Lee sighs, and stays inside. </p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>The storm lasts all night. Ty Lee can feel it. </p>
<p>She always can. </p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>Back in the Fire Nation, Ty Lee doesn’t climb anything. It’s one thing when they’re out in the world, but here . . . </p>
<p>No. She doesn’t climb anything here. </p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>Zuko walks by. Ty Lee looks after him, and thinks about how he killed the Avatar. </p>
<p>Thinks about the first time she saw the Avatar bend. </p>
<p>Air feeds fire. </p>
<p>But nobody talks about that in the Fire Nation. </p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>When she hits Azula, she’s not even thinking about it. </p>
<p>But after Azula hits the ground, she’s thinking about it. </p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>“That was stupid,” Mai says evenly before they lock them up, while someone’s still doing the paperwork to put them in cramped, crushing little cells and leave them there. Ty Lee is already aching under the weight of chains. She could jump, she tells herself. She can still jump. </p>
<p>She’s not sure what she means by that. </p>
<p>“I heard a story once,” she says, because this is probably the last chance she has to ever say this. “Did you know that air feeds fire?” </p>
<p>“What?” Mai gives her a blank look. Ty Lee can’t figure out how to explain it better. She mimes a little one-two punch, the same one that took down Azula; the same one Azula never expected. It’s not really related to the story, but she remembers exactly how it felt to hit her and thinks she’ll maybe never forget. </p>
<p>She could’ve done it at any time all those times, but she didn’t do it until now. </p>
<p>“It’s a story,” Ty Lee says. “Air feeds fire. It makes it . . . bigger? Stronger?” </p>
<p>“Why?” Mai says, and Ty Lee shrugs helplessly. Mai did this for Zuko. She did this for . . . </p>
<p>For Mai and Azula, mostly, but maybe not only. </p>
<p>For the first time she saw the Avatar bend. </p>
<p>That doesn’t even make sense. </p>
<p>“I don’t know,” she says. “I just think about it sometimes. Isn’t it weird?” </p>
<p>“You didn’t have to help me,” Mai says. She doesn’t understand, Ty Lee thinks. </p>
<p>“You were going to hurt each other,” she says, although she knows Azula is never, ever going to understand that she hit her so she wouldn’t have to see her full of knives. She’s never going to forgive her. </p>
<p>Ty Lee doesn’t need forgiven for something like that. </p>
<p>Somebody had to do it, and it couldn’t have been anyone else but her. </p>
<p>“I betrayed the princess of our nation,” Mai says neutrally. “I was never getting off this rock again, no matter how that fight turned out.” </p>
<p>“Did you ever watch the Avatar bend?” Ty Lee says, gently rattling her chains, because Mai still doesn’t understand and she just . . . she wants to <i>explain</i>. </p>
<p>She’s never really wanted to explain before. </p>
<p>She’s chained up tighter than Mai. People always assume Mai’s not as dangerous without her weapons. </p>
<p>It’s silly. </p>
<p>Mai gives her a strange look, and Ty Lee knows she doesn’t get it and never will. Not if Ty Lee can’t bring herself to say the words, and maybe not even then. </p>
<p>She thinks about it, but she doesn’t say the words. </p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>Ty Lee’s cell is cramped and crushing and has no room for her to jump or move. There’s no windows, and the air inside it is still and stagnant and cold. </p>
<p>Ty Lee doesn’t really get cold that easily. </p>
<p>They put her in the cooler, sometimes. Just to do it, as far as Ty Lee can tell, since obviously she’s not a firebender so there’s nothing in her to douse. They do that kind of thing a lot, though. She sees other prisoners come out weak and shaking and desperate to never go back. </p>
<p>She doesn’t really get cold that easily, though. </p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>Four days after Sozin’s Comet, someone opens the door of Ty Lee’s cell, which is only notable because it’s the wrong time of day for it. She tenses, because the door only opens at the wrong time of day when they’re going to try to punish her. So far they haven’t done anything really <i>bad</i>, and in fact nobody’s touched her in days, but . . . </p>
<p>She blinks. </p>
<p>“Ty Lee,” Zuko says from the doorway, sounding relieved, and she stares at him and tilts her head. </p>
<p>He isn’t wearing chains. </p>
<p>“Zuko?” she says, and he comes in and he <i>hugs</i> her, and of course she hugs him back. He hisses softly, like maybe it hurts, and she loosens her grip a bit and frowns in confusion. “Where’s Azula?” </p>
<p>“Long story,” he sighs into her shoulder. “Do you know where Mai is? The warden’s not cooperating. We weren’t even sure either of you were here.” </p>
<p>“I know where she is,” Ty Lee says, because the guards think she’s stupid so they talk around her a lot. She looks out the doorway past Zuko and there are guards and soldiers standing there, but they don’t close the door or lock them in. “Zuko, what . . .?” </p>
<p>“<i>Very</i> long story,” he says, pulling back and giving her a wry smile. “But you’re pardoned. By order of the Fire Lord.” </p>
<p>“What?” Ty Lee says. </p>
<p>“Me. I’m the Fire Lord now,” Zuko says, and Ty Lee stares at him. “Please take me to Mai.” </p>
<p>She does, of course. </p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>The war is over. </p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>Ty Lee disappears into the Kyoshi Warriors the way she’s always hated to disappear among her sisters, thinking about the first time she saw the Avatar bend. It’s not exactly perfect, maybe, but there’s something right about it anyway. They teach her how they fight and she teaches them chi-blocking, but she can’t teach them to jump as high as she can. </p>
<p>She can’t teach anyone to do that, of course. </p>
<p>There’s only one person who can jump as high as Ty Lee. </p>
<p>Or higher. </p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>They’re drinking tea at Iroh’s shop, all of them together like they’re friends even though they’re not all really, and Ty Lee is the odd one out, a bit. It’s been a while since the end of the war, and she’s learned a lot. Like a lot of things that were lies, and a lot of stories about things like air feeding fire. </p>
<p>She hasn’t told anyone else that story yet, but she thinks she could, now. </p>
<p>If she wanted. </p>
<p>The air is heavy like it’s going to storm and the tea is the perfect temperature, like Iroh’s tea always is. Ty Lee drinks it, and listens to everyone else talk. They say a lot. She doesn’t say anything, for once, at least not unless someone says something directly to her. </p>
<p>But—</p>
<p>“I don’t know what to do about the Air temples. I feel like . . . there’s no way to <i>really</i> restore balance without any more airbenders,” the Avatar is saying—Aang is saying, quiet and off to the side. Ty Lee sets down her tea with a little frown and . . . listens. </p>
<p>“Aang,” Katara says gently, reaching over to squeeze his hand. “You’ll figure it out. We’ll help you.” </p>
<p>“I just don’t know what to do,” he says. </p>
<p>“Hey, Aang?” Ty Lee says, pushing her tea away. “Can I talk to you?” </p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>They go outside. The storm’s almost here, and the clouds overhead are the same gray as Aang’s eyes. Ty Lee’s eyes are brown. </p>
<p>She’s just thinking about that, is all. </p>
<p>“What is it?” Aang says. Ty Lee looks at him. They’ve never really talked before, and she’s never said this to anyone. </p>
<p>Maybe she should’ve started with Mai. </p>
<p>“I heard a story,” she says, stretching her arms over her head, and she feels silly saying it to an airbender, but . . . “Did you know that air feeds fire?” </p>
<p>“Yes,” he says. “It’s really useful.” </p>
<p>“Yeah.” Ty Lee bends forward to touch her toes. “Do you like storms?” </p>
<p>“. . . I mean . . . yeah?” He frowns at her. He doesn’t know what she’s talking about, but she doesn’t think she knows either, so . . . </p>
<p>So. </p>
<p>She does know, obviously. She just doesn’t know how to say it. </p>
<p>“The first time I saw you bend, I went and cried after,” she says, looking at her feet. “I’d never seen anybody else do it before.” </p>
<p>“Bend?” Aang says, his frown deepening. “You’ve seen people bend.” </p>
<p>“Not bend like that,” Ty Lee says. She hesitates, then straightens up and looks at him. “Hey. Do you want to climb the palace with me?” </p>
<p>“I think we’d get in trouble,” he says. </p>
<p>“You’re the <i>Avatar</i>,” she says. </p>
<p>“I mean . . .” He hesitates too, then grins a little. “Well. I guess we’ll only get in trouble if we get caught.” </p>
<p>“Yeah,” Ty Lee says, grinning back at him, and they go. </p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>It’s going to storm, but Ty Lee doesn’t care. Aang has his glider, and she’s not afraid of a little wind anyway. </p>
<p>The lightning, maybe, but it’s not like she’s never dealt with lightning before. </p>
<p>Mm. </p>
<p>“It’s nice up here,” Ty Lee says from the highest point of the palace’s roof, walking across it on her hands. </p>
<p>“Did you still want to talk?” he asks. He’s that kind of person, she guesses. </p>
<p>“No,” she says, leaning over the edge of the roof; looking down at the ground far below. “But I want to show you something.” </p>
<p>“Show me what?” he asks, and she flips back onto her feet and balances right on the edge on her tip-toes, the stormy wind whipping her braid and clothes around. Aang watches her, but he’s clearly not afraid either. </p>
<p>Ty Lee thinks about saying something else, but there’s not much point, she thinks. </p>
<p>So she jumps. </p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>Aang shouts. Ty Lee falls. </p>
<p>But Ty Lee never gets hurt when she falls. </p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>There’s going to be a storm. </p>
<p>There’s going to be a storm, and Ty Lee can feel it. </p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>Aang grabs her out of the sky and she throws her arms around his neck and the wind blasts up beneath them, sends them spiraling high into the air on his glider. </p>
<p>“Warn a guy, geez!” he says, and Ty Lee looks at him. </p>
<p>“Warning!” she says brightly, and lets go of him. Aang loses his grip and she falls again, and the wind whips past. She’s not scared of falling, because she never has been. </p>
<p>“Ty Lee!” he yells, and dives after her. He catches her again, and this time they spiral downwards. Ty Lee isn’t afraid of falling, but that’s not the direction she wants to go. </p>
<p>“Good catch!” she says cheerfully. Can he tell, when she jumps? He never said anything before, if he could. </p>
<p>He should be able to tell, right? </p>
<p>She feels like he should. </p>
<p>“Hey, do you want to see a trick?” she says as they land, and Aang gives her a bewildered look. </p>
<p>“A trick?” he says. </p>
<p>“Yeah!” Ty Lee grins at him. She has to. This is . . . hard. Hard and complicated and <i>weird</i> and she doesn’t know how to do it right, because she’s never done it before. </p>
<p>She really should have started with Mai. </p>
<p>“Okay,” he says, and she reaches into his pocket and pulls out that little toy he likes to spin in the air and then she . . . then she . . . </p>
<p>Then she does what she’s watched him do, and it works. Mostly. The toy wobbles a little between her hands, but . . . she does it. Like it’s some easy, simple thing. </p>
<p>Aang stares at her. The toy wobbles a little more, and she loses her grip on it. Aang doesn’t even try to catch it, and it hits the ground and bounces. </p>
<p>Ty Lee tries to figure out what to say, but she can’t, so she just keeps grinning at him like this isn’t terrifying, like she doesn’t feel like she just put a knife to her own throat, like lightning isn’t about to strike. </p>
<p>“Ty Lee,” he says roughly, and nothing else. </p>
<p>“Yeah?” Ty Lee says. She picks up the dropped toy and holds it out to him. He doesn’t take it. He’s gripping his staff tight. </p>
<p>“How did you . . .” </p>
<p>“Oh, I just can,” Ty Lee says with a shrug, still holding out the toy. She could do the trick again, maybe. She’s seen him do it enough times. She doesn’t, though. </p>
<p>“You just . . . <i>can</i>,” he repeats slowly, and looks like he might be about to cry. Ty Lee smiles brightly at him. It’s her best defense. </p>
<p>“Yeah!” she says. </p>
<p>“Your sisters,” he says. “Can they . . . ?” </p>
<p>“I don’t think so.” Ty Lee shrugs. She tugs at her braid with her free hand. “But we’re not that close.” </p>
<p>“But you can,” Aang says, and finally takes the toy back. He keeps staring at her. She smiles brighter. “Did Azula know?” </p>
<p>“Oh, no,” she says, immediately shaking her head. “Nobody knows. Except you, now!” </p>
<p>“But <i>how</i>?” he says. </p>
<p>“I don’t know,” she says. “I just can.” </p>
<p>“Is that why you betrayed her?” he asks. </p>
<p>“I didn’t betray her,” Ty Lee says, because she really didn’t. Azula’s her friend, or at least she used to be. “They were going to hurt each other. Azula was just the closest one.” </p>
<p>“We beat her because of you,” Aang says. “If you and Mai had been with her . . . even if just <i>you</i> had . . .” </p>
<p>“Then what?” Ty Lee says, tilting her head. </p>
<p>“I don’t know,” Aang says, looking troubled. “But it would’ve been different.” </p>
<p>Ty Lee shrugs. She puts her hands behind her back. Probably it would’ve been different, she guesses, but she’s not sure Mai could’ve fought Zuko even then. </p>
<p>Then again, she guesses Azula’d been intending to handle that. They’d have been fighting Katara, probably. Assuming that Zuko and Katara would’ve even been able to get near them, with all the soldiers Azula probably would’ve had in the palace. </p>
<p>It would’ve been different, yeah. </p>
<p>“I just didn’t want them to hurt each other,” she says. She hadn’t been thinking about anything else. Not when she’d hit Azula, anyway. </p>
<p>After Azula had hit the ground, but . . . </p>
<p>Well. That’d been after she’d already hit her. </p>
<p>“Are you mad?” she says, and he blinks at her. </p>
<p>“Mad?” he says. </p>
<p>“Yeah.” Ty Lee tugs at her braid again. “After everything.” </p>
<p>“. . . no,” he says. “No, I’m not mad.” </p>
<p>“Okay.” Ty Lee rocks back on her heels and looks for . . . a defense, mostly. “Hey! Do you want to climb the palace again? I think it’s going to storm soon.” </p>
<p>Aang throws his arms around her and hugs her <i>tight</i>. It’s not really her he’s hugging, Ty Lee can’t help but suspect. </p>
<p>Less unexpected than getting hugged by Zuko, really, so . . . </p>
<p>“Is that a yes?” she asks, wrapping her arms around him in return, and he laughs, choked and aching and not letting go of her at all. </p>
<p>“Yeah,” he says. “Yeah, that’s a yes.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>
  <a href="http://suzukiblu.tumblr.com/">Tumblr!</a>
</p></blockquote></div></div>
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